Axl Rose: Can He Be A Real "Pepper" Too?

The best marketing is the kind that provides a company huge bang for no buck at all.

Tell everyone you'll give your product away for free if something impossible happens--like the Giants winning the Super Bowl--and then sit back confidently that you'll never have to pay up.

The only problem is if the impossible becomes possible.

Dr. Pepper is promising everyone in America a free can of soda if Axl Rose completes and ships his 17-years-in-the-making epic album "Chinese Democracy" in 2008. See the whole spiel at www.chinesedemocracywhen.blogspot.com.

DP spokeswoman Jaxie Alt (which looks like an anagrm of Axl Rose) says the soda maker can relate to the artistic process, "and fully understands that sometimes you have to make it through the jungle before you get it right."

But if Rose gets the job done, the company, a division of Cadbury Schweppes , risks losing money on 300 million cans of soda (minus two: disgruntled former GNR guitarists Slash and Buckethead are not eligible).

Well...AXL HAS RESPONDED! Check out the press release below, in which Rose refers to himself as "we", like the Queen or the Pope:

"We are surprised and very happy to have the support of Dr Pepper with our album 'Chinese Democracy.' As for us, this came totally out of the blue. If there is any involvement with this promotion by our record company or others, we are unaware of such at this time. And as some of Buckethead's performances are on our album, I'll share my Dr Pepper with him. Axl Rose"

Fortunately for Dr. Pepper, Rose (or should it be Roses since he's a "we"?) says nothing about actually getting the album out.